Toronto Airport

Yay! The start of the year and the start of a new trip. Omicron is raging in Canada and we are anxious to get out of here.

In 1999, when we were teaching English in Mexico, we met a lot of wonderful young people. We have kept in touch with a few of the teachers and one special person we met, was an adventurous man from Texas, Jeremy. Well, Jeremy became a lawyer, got married to a beautiful lady, Linley, had 2 boys and the family moved to Patzcuaro, Mexico. Last year, they decided to build a house in a tiny beach town that they loved, north of Zihuatanejo, called Majahua. They asked if we wanted to rent it from them during the winter and we jumped on the offer. We don’t want to spend another winter in a condo in Ontario!

So here we are, starting a new year, by sitting in the Toronto airport waiting to board a plane to Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo. The last time we were in Mexico was 705 days ago.

Our friend, Donna, stayed overnight at our Fergus condo and at 3 a.m. we all caught a Red Car to the airport. We are all flying on Air Canada but are going to Mexico and she is going to Victoria, B.C. The weather at 3 in the morning was supposed to be blustery and cold but our drive was an easy one and we got to the airport in no time.

I had completed all the airport info online and because we had boarding passes and carryons, we went through security in a matter of minutes.

Very few people were in the airport. We bought a coffee and ate our egg salad sandwiches while we waited. Right on schedule, we boarded the clean plane. The two of us has 3 seats. Everything was done efficiently and in a pleasant manner. We were impressed.

Shortly after we boarded it started to snow and blow. The blizzard had arrived! The flight was delayed by about 1/2 hour as the plane had to be de-iced and the runways cleared. We could barely see out of our window.

By 11:45, we were flying over Dallas.

By 1:30 p.m., we landed in Ixtapa. It was lovely to see the Mexican blue sky again. Going through immigration was a breeze as we had done all the paperwork online before we left. It is a tiny airport so we were in and out in no time.

Jonny Cash’s car rental was a 3 minute walk away. He is a young Mexican who rents older cars with full insurance and unlimited miles for a good price. He was waiting for us and in minutes we now had a Nissan Versa with manual transmission. Jonny had been highly recommended by several gringos who come here on a regular basis. He is very professional and honest. The cars may be dinged up a bit but they run well and have good tires.

So, onto the next job of the day, getting our groceries. About 10 km north on Hwy 200 there is a good Mega Soriana one stop store for groceries and other things. It’s like a Mexican Zehrs.

We stocked up with basics, not knowing what Troncones, the town closest to us, has to offer. Then off to our home for the next three months.

Troncones is a cute little tourist town right on the Pacific Ocean. The government plans on making it a bigger destination for sun lovers. Too bad. Right now it is a typical old fashioned Mexican town with a few tourists, who love to surf, roaming the streets.

After Troncones, the road changes from being paved to a dirt road with potholes. The village of Majahua is very tiny and full of dogs and chickens. We had to stop to allow a chicken family to cross the road. At one point, we had to drive the car through a small river. Jeremy’s house is just a bit north of that. He has a long driveway, 150 yards, to the house that you can kind of see from the road, through the jungly trees.

We had arrived and it was only 4 p.m.Read more